


STUDIES FROM THE 

HELEN S. TROUNSTINE FOUNDATION 



VOLUME 1 APRIL 1, 1921 NUMBER 7 



FEEBLE-MINDED EX-SCHOOL CHILDREN 

A Study of Children who have been students in 
Cincinnati Special Schools 



By Helen T. \yoOLLEY, Ph. D. 

Director of the Vocatioa Bureau 

and 
HORNELL Hart 

Former Reaearch Fellow of the Foundation 




CINCINNATI, U. S. A. 



r M iHE Helen S. Trou?istine Foundation, built as a 
B monument to the memory of Helen S. Trounstine, 

M ivas incorporated in the 'State of Ohio, February 9, 
1 91 7. The Foundation is supported by private contri- 
butions, and is administered by a self-perpetuating 
Board of Trustees. It is devoted to the investigation of 
social problems, particularly those presented within the 
City of Cincinnati. 

In pursuance of the purposes for which it was estab- 
lished, the Foundation issues publications at various 
times setting forth the results of investigations carried 
out under its head. It naturally assumes no responsi- 
bility for the contents of the papers which it sees fii to 
print. The publications of the Foundation may be ob- 
tained by addressing the Foundation at 25 East Ninth 
Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A. 



Price of this paper, 50 cents. 












WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF 

The Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

25 East Ninth Street 

CINCINNATI. OHIO 



233 









T^EEBLE-MINDED EX-SCHOOL CHILDREN 

A Study of Children who have been students in 
Cincinnati Special Schools 



By Helen T. Woolley Ph. D. 

Director of the Vocation Bureau 

and 

HORNELL Hart 

Former Research Fellow of the Foundation 



233 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Introduction 237 

Material for Investigation 238 

Mental, Educational and Social Status of Special School Children. . . .239 

Ages 239 

Chronological Ages 239 

(Table I) 240 

Mental Ages 241 

(Table II) 241 

Family Records with Social Agencies of the Confidential 

Exchange 242 

Number of Children from such Families and types of Agencies 

with which they were Registered' 242 

(Table III) 242 

Types of Maladjustment discovered in Members of the Families . 243 

(Table IV) 243 

Length of Time Spent in Special Schools 243 

(Table V) 244 

Correlation Between Length of Stay and Intelligence Quotient. 244 

(Table VI) , 244 

History after Leaving Special Schools 244 

Leisure Interests 244 

(Table VII) 245 

Relationship between Mentality and Leisure Occupation 246 

(Table VIII) 246 

Delinquency 246 

Social and Economic Status at the Time of Study 246 

Status Classified according to Sex — Number and Percentage . . 247 

(Table IX) 247 



Table of Contents— Continued 



Status Classified according to Time Spent in Special Schools, 

Intelligence Quotient and Quality of Hand-work 247 

(Table X) 247 

Status Classified according to Social Maladjustment — Percent 
Delinquent and Percent with Family Maladjustments. . . .248 
(Table XI) 248 

Analyses of Social Groups 248 

Individuals Living at Home .248 

Individuals Kept in Institutions 249 

Individuals Who Married 250 

Imbeciles and Morons in Industry 253 

Method of Investigation 254 

Earnings Classified according to Amount, Sex and Intelli- 
gence Quotient 254 

(Table XII) 254 

Earnings Classified according to Amount, Sex and Median 

Number of Years in Special Schools 255 

(Table XIII) 255 

Length of Time in Positions 256 

Type of Positions Held 256 

(Table XIV) 256 

Delinquency in this Group 258 

Summary and Conclusions. 260 

Selection of Pupils for the Special Schools 260 

Type of Training 260 

Record Keeping 262 

Social Case Work 263 



FEEBLE-MINDED EX-SCHOOL CHILDREN 

A Study of Children who have been students in 
Cincinnati Special Schools 



By Helen T. Woolley Ph. D. 

Director of the Vocation Bureau 
and 

Hornell Hart 

Former Research Fellow of the Foundation 



INTRODUCTION 

The education of feeble-minded children by the public schools was 
undertaken with high hope — specifically the hope that if the most skilled 
teaching and the most favorable school environment could be given these 
least well endowed children, their deficiencies could be compensated and 
they could be sent out into society ready to play a normal part. Con- 
sequently such children were given the advantage of very small classes 
(about fifteen children to a teacher), of superior teachers who are paid a 
higher salary, of special equipment for teaching, and of the added stimulus 
of various kinds of hand work. 

The case for the establishment of such schools is well stated in the 
following quotation from a paper by Miss Emma Kohnky*, principal of the 
School for Defectives in Cincinnati. 

"In nearly every instance these children either have been necessarily 
neglected or have submitted to constant reproach in the regular class room. 
Inability to take part in the class exercises has given them time with no 
way to use it. Hence has arisen disorder and friction with the teacher. 

Place these children in the new environment: competition among equals 
becomes possible; the teacher who has only a small group of children has a 
chance to get acquainted with the new arrival. She finds that he can do 
this or the other thing tolerably well; she praises him and emphasizes this 
power. She attempts to make him realize himself; for the first time this 
child has the satisfaction that comes with ability to do. 

Inequality of Development. One of the most striking features among 
children who test 'subnormal' is their inequality of development. One 
may do fairly well in one subject of the curriculum and be a failure in 
another. Since there is no attempt to bring all of the children of a group 
to a certain standard at a given time, these individual differences can be 
taken care of. Regrouping within the group makes this possible. Our 
methods do not differ greatly from those used in other classes except that 
there is a larger use of the concrete; kindergarten practise persists over a 
longer period; experiences are more actively brought to the child since his 

*The School Index, Cincinnati, Ohio. V. 210, (1919.) 



238 Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation 

initiative is very weak. The chief aim so far as the regular branches are con- 
cerned is to give power in spoken and to a lesser degree in written language. 

More time than is assigned to regular classes is given to handwork; 
sewing, embroidery, cooking, weaving, basketry, woodwork, cardboard 
construction and the like. This is not, as is often believed, because these 
children excel in handwork, but rather because the product does not need 
to be perfect to make it usable as is true with a problem in arithmetic or a 
list of spelling words. The largest benefit from this work is the reaction of 
his achievement upon the child. 

A daily period in the gymnasium is provided for all but the youngest 
children. A disposition to sit undisturbed, a mental as well as physical 
laziness, often exists. Games and folk dances as well as the ordinary gym- 
nastic exercises are used to combat this condition." 

Schools of this type have now been established long enough to make it 
worth while to begin to measure results. The special school in Cincinnati 
was established in 1909. It has now developed until its enrollment is 
400 children. The cost per capita of these classes (191 8) is $83.00 per year 
as compared with $35.00 for normal children. At the time this study was 
undertaken, 203 of these children had reached the legal age for leaving 
school and had gone out into the community to shift for themselves. It is 
an important matter for the school to know what has become of them. Are 
they able to earn a living? What proportion of them are dangerous to the 
community? What have they gained from their schooling, in personal 
resources as well as in industrial ef^ficiency? The answer to such questions 
as these has been the objective of this study. 

MATERIAL FOR INVESTIGATION 

The group of children who form the subject-matter of this investigation 
comprises all of the children ever enrolled in classes for defectives in Cin- 
cinnati who had, in the summer of 1918, been out of school for as much as 
a year. There were 203 such children. The material proved to be unex- 
pectedly disappointing for the purposes of this study because both the 
laboratory and the school records of the children were found to be meager. 

When the school was first established, children were selected largely on 
the basis of the judgment of teachers. If mental tests were made by the 
principal, who had been trained at Vineland, no records of them were kept. 
A few years later, the Department of Psychology of the University of 
Cincinnati was designated as the regular channel through which children 
were to be assigned to the school. Since the University clinic was in session 
only one-half day a week, and children to be examined were compelled to go 
out to the University accompanied by a parent, the number for whom 
examinations could be arranged was limited. For this reason, some children 
were admitted without test even after the clinic had been recognized. 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 239 

No reports of the results of mental tests beyond a mere statement of 
mental age were ever sent to the Special School by the University clinic. 
What records there were, were on file at the University. When this study 
was undertaken, a list of the children to be investigated was sent to the 
University and in each case in which a record was on file, a mental age was 
put down opposite the name on the list. Aside from this, no scientific data 
with regard to these children were available. A few of them happened to 
have been tested also in the laboratory of the Vocation Bureau, but too few 
to be of importance in the present study. In 1916, the laboratory of the 
Vocation Bureau was recognized by the Superintendent of Schools as the 
regular channel for assignment to the Special School. Since that time, 
complete records have been sent to the school and have also been filed at 
the central ofiice, but most of these children are still in school and do not 
appear in this investigation 

The absence of school records at the School for Defectives has made it 
impossible to use degree of school success as one measure in this study. 
It seemed at the start unimportant to make accurate records of the very 
slow progress of these children and as a consequence no academic records 
were kept. In some instances, the teachers remembered how much progress 
the children had made and in others not. Except for an estimate of facility 
with hand work, we have made no attempt to use the factor of educational 
accomplishment. 

In addition to the very meagre laboratory and school records available, 
we secured all the information about the families of these children which 
was recorded in the Confidential Exchange of the Council of Social Agencies 
and in the records of the agencies registering there, and visited the home of 
each child to find out what we could about his social and industrial history. 
The number of cases is too small to furnish the basis for scientific con- 
clusions even if the data were complete. However, unsatisfactory as the 
basis of the study is, it furnishes some tentative conclusions which are at 
least suggestive of further lines of inquiry and of policy. 

Although the intention was to send only children who were definitely 
feeble-minded to the Special School, nevertheless some of those sent without 
examination were not feeble-minded (later tests established this) and others 
with special defects were sent e\'en though their general mental level was 
above feeble-mindedness. For the purposes of this study, intelligence 
quotient is the only usable measure of mentality. 

MENTAL EDUCATIONAL AND SOCL'\L STATUS OF 
SPECL^L SCHOOL CHILDREN 

The chronological ages of these children at the time of the mental test, is 
shown in Table I. Since only two of the children were less than ten and 
most of them were twelve or more at the time of the test, the intelligence 



240 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

quotient can be accepted as a fairly homogeneous measure of intelligence. 
Although Terman a few years ago stated that the intelligence quotient was 
a constant factor which could be regarded as characteristic of the individual 
no matter what the chronological age at the time of the test, recent work 
has not borne out this opinion. Genuinely feeble-minded children are apt 
to have an intelligence quotient which decreases from year to year as 
development gradually slows down and ceases. Children who have become 
retarded through neglect or physical defects sometimes improve in intelli- 



TABLE I 

Chronological ages of former students of Cincinnati Special Schools at time 
of first mental test. 



Age in Years 



Number in Each Group 



Less than 10. 

10 

II 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

1 7 or over . . . 
Not given . . . 



2 
4 
13 
21 
20 
24 
18 
4 



All Ages 

No record of mental test . 



115 



Total Number Studied 



203 



gence quotient when proper treatment is applied. The younger the child, 
the greater the chance that the intelligence quotient does not represent a 
final stage of development. In children above twelve years, however, the 
quotient is apt to be a significant indication of final capacity. At fifteen 
years or more, it is reasonable to expect a static quotient. In the present 
series, therefore, the error involved in accepting these quotients as signif- 
icant of adult capacity is not large. 

The fact that the children received in the Special School were so old at 
the time of entry is worthy of some comment. The explanation is that as 
yet the initial selection of children for the Special School rests with the 
teacher and principal, and the teacher hesitates to recommend a very young 
child as probably defective. Moreover, while they are young, they do 
comparatively little damage to the class work and to the other children by 
simply sitting in the room and getting what they can. In Cincinnati during 
the period covered by this study, children who failed stayed two years in 
a grade and were then automatically promoted to sit another two years in 
the next grade. By the time they were about twelve years old, they were 
very conspicuously over-size for the grade and were often becoming prob- 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 



241 



lems of behavior. The teachers then began to seek relief by recommending 
them for special classes. 

The result is unfortunate for the children and for the Special School. 
At the period when the Special School could have done most for these 
children, they were simply sitting in the regular grades in large classes, 
with teachers who had no time to give them as individuals, and no special 
interest in their problem. By the time they finally reached the school, 
many of them were within a year or two of the legal age for leaving school. 
Very few of these children remain in school longer than the law compels 
them to stay. The average time in the Special School for this entire group 
is only a year and a half (see Table V). This is not long enough to be a fair 
test of what such a school might do. It ought to have the children at 
least five years. 

The remedy for this situation seems in sight. The teachers are learning 
which children should be recommended for examination early. It will soon 
be routine that any child who has spent two years in a grade without success 
must be tested. Furthermore, methods of group testing for young children 
are rapidly being developed which, when supplemented by individual tests, 
will furnish a method of selecting children for special classes independently 
of the judgment of the teacher. 

The range of intelligence of these children, expressed in terms of their 
intelligence quotients* is shown in Table II. 



TABLE II 

Distribution according to mentality of 203 former students of Cincinnati 
Special Schools. 



Intelligence Quotient 

Under 50 

50-60 

60-70 

70-80 

80-90 

Number with known I. Q 

Number with I. Q. not known 

Total number studied 



Number of Students 



Percentage 



17 
27 
41 
23 

7 



14.8 

23-5 

35-6 

20.0 

6.1 



115 



1 00.0 



J03 



About one in seven of the children for whom records of mental tests 
could be found are imbeciles. Between half and two-thirds are morons. 
Over one-fourth are borderline or normal children. 

The record of the families of these children for delinquency and depen- 



*The intelligence quotient is found by dividing the mental age by the chronological age or by 16 years if the 
child was beyond that age when tested. 



242 



Hele?i S. Trounstine Foundation 



dency is indicated by their contact with the social agencies of the city. Of 
the 203 children studied, 139 or over two-thirds, came from families for 
whom there have been clearings in the Confidential Exchange of the Council 
of Social Agencies. This unquestionably understates the case, for the 
Confidential Exchange was not established until 191 3 and was not sys- 
tematically used by all the agencies for the first few years. The agencies 
have been classified into three groups : those dealing primarily with poverty 
or economic standards of living, those dealing primarily with health, and 
those dealing primarily with delinquency. The number of children from 
families having clearings with these various types of agencies is shown in 
Table III. 



TABLE III 

Number of former students of Special Schools coming from families having 
clearings with the social agencies of the Confidential Exchange. 


Agencies and Types of Agency 


Number of children from families 
having clearings in the respec- 
tive agencies 


Associated Charities 


36 
16 
16 

34 
26 


Salvation Army 

United Jewish Charities 


Institutions dealing with dependency 


Other standard of living agencies 

Total for agencies dealing with standard of living 

Free Dental Clinic 

Anti-Tuberculosis League 


128 

40 
23 
12 

43 


Visiting Nurse Association 

Other health agencies 


Total for agencies dealing with health 


118 

72 
38 
49 
18 


Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court 


Ohio Humane Society 

Attendance Department 

Other agencies dealing with delinquency 

Total for agencies dealing with delinquency 

Total for all agencies 

Total number of children from families having clearings 

Number of cases per family 

Number of children from families having no such clearing 


177 

423 

139 

3 

64 



A certain amount of duplication is involved in the fact that where two 
or three children from the same family were enrolled in the Special Schools 
the clearings for that family have counted two or three times. This is a 
very minor factor, however, and is due to the necessity for considering the 
child rather than the family as the unit in this study. 

The pauperism, delinquency and physical deficiency indicated by these 
figures is sufficiently impressive. Another aspect of the same facts is fur- 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 



243 



nished by a tabulation of the number of social maladjustments occurring 
among members of the immediate family. 



TABLE IV 

Social maladjustments of father, mother, brothers and sisters of former 
students of Special Schools. 


Maladjustments discovered 


Number of children from 
families having the mal- 
adjustments noted 


Father noted as mentally defective . 


4 
15 
36 
25 

6 


Mother noted as mentally defective 

Brothers or sisters mentally defective 

Father alcoholic 

Mother alcoholic 


Brother alcoholic 


I 


Father delinquent 

Mother delinquent 

Brother or sister delinquent 

Father dead 

Mother dead 


18 
II 
20 

25 
16 
10 
51 


Both parents dead 

Other maladjustments, including tuberculosis, syphilis, etc. 

Total 


238 

128 
75 


Number of children from families with one or more of the 
above maladjustments 

Children from families not known to have such malad- 
iustments 





In appraising the significance of the above table it must be remembered 
that the items included were discovered more or less by accident. No 
systematic mental tests, for instance, were applied to the parents and 
brothers and sifters of these children. Alcoholism, delinquency and disease 
are noted only where some social agency chanced to report such conditions 
in its record or when they were discovered in interviewing the family. In 
spite of this fact nearly two-thirds of these children are recorded as having 
such maladjustments in their families. Two of the former students have 
brothers of unusually bright mentality. 

The time spent in the Special School by such children is an important 
factor to consider in attempting to estimate the results of its educational 
program. Half of the children covered in this study stayed in the Special 
Schools less than a year and a half. The numbers are shown in Table V. 

About two-fifths of the children were in these schools longer than two 
full school years. Absence of records in one-fifth of the cases makes it 
impossible to -tell how long the children stayed. 

The length of stay of the children appears to have varied directly with 
their intelligence. While the imbeciles and the low grade morons were 



244 



Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 



TABLE V 
Length of time spent in Special Schools by former students covered in this 


study. 


Approximate number of school years 


Number of children in Special 
Schools specified period 


Percent 


One or less 


59 
40 

31 
20 

7 
3 


36.8 
25.0 
19.4 

12.5 
4.4 

1-9 


Two 


Three 


Four 


Five 


Six or more . . . ■ 


Number with known length of stay . . . 
Not given 

Total 


160 

43 


lOO.O 


203 





kept only about a year each, on the average, the borderUne children stayed 
about two and a half years. Table VI gives the details of this point. 



TABLE VI 

Length of stay in Special Schools correlated with intelligence quotients. 



Intelligence Quotients 

Under 50 

50-60 

60-70 

70-80 

80-90 

Not given 

Entire Group 



Median length of stay 
in Special Schools 



Number of 
length 
Given 



cases with 
of stay 
Not Given 



i.o 
I.I 
17 
2.5 
2.3 
1.2 



14 

22 

31 
19 

8 
66 



6 

3 
12 

3 
o 

19 



1-5 



160 



43 



As in all the tables in this report, the number of items is too small for 
conclusive results. The steady rise in the median length of stay with the 
rise in intelligence appears, however, to indicate a real correlation. What 
the cause of the relationship is cannot be stated on the basis of these figures. 
Possibly the children of lower mentality were felt to be hopeless and were 
not encouraged to stay, while the higher grades of mentality seemed to offer 
possibilities worth working with. 



LIFE OF FORMER STUDENTS AFTER LEAVING SPECIAL SCHOOL 

The use of leisure time by these ex-students is one of the significant 
indications of the effect of their education upon them. Table VII shows 
the answers to the questions on this subject from the groups with which it 
was possible to get interviews. 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 



245 



TABLE VII 

Leisure interests of former students of Special Schools who were living at 
home or were gainfully occupied at the time of the study. 


Kind of Interest 


Number answering 


Percentage of all in these 

groups answering 

affirmatively 


Read newspapers — 

Yes 


43 
50 

10 
67 

II 
61 

47 

56 
19 

13 
17 

7 
II 

4 
II 

10 

13 

9 


43-4 
lO.I 
II. I 

56.6 

131 

71 

4.0 

lO.I 

91 


No or seldom 

Read magazines — • 

Yes 


No or seldom 

Read books — 

Yes 

No or seldom 

Do little or no reading of any sort 

Attend movies — 

Yes 

No or very rarely 

Attend dances — 

Yes 

No or seldom 

Attend vaudeville — 

Yes 

No 

Attend burlesque — 

Yes 

No 

Attend church — 

Yes 

No 

Rarely go out alone 


Number in these groups giving any an- 
swer on these points 

Number giving no data on leisure 

Total in these groups 


99 

32 


1 00.0 


131 



The percentage of those answering any of the above questions who 
stated definitely that they do Uttle or no reading was 47.5. Including those 
who failed to answer the reading question, it is probable that half of these 
ex-students of the Special Schools do practically no reading whatever. Only 
ten percent read books and ten percent magazines. A very considerable 
proportion state explicitly that they have never learned to read. Going to 
the movies is by far the most popular occupation. Fifty-six percent state 
that they go more or less frequently, while only nineteen percent state that 
they go not at all or go rarely. The question about church was answered by 
only one-fourth of those who answered any of these questions, and less than 
half of those who replied on this point do go to church. Dances, vaudeville 
and burlesque appear to interest very few of these young people. Although 
the question was not specifically asked, nine of the children were said to go 
out very rarely, or only with some other member of the family. In one case 



246 



Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation 



it was stated that the boy was sensitive because of the fun made of him. 
Another considerable group is said to go out a great deal. 

The relationship between mentality and leisure occupation appears 
strikingly. Table VIII shows the median intelligence quotients of the 
groups with various leisure interests. . 



TABLE VIII 

Effect of mentality upon the use of leisure time 


Type of Interest 


Median intelligence quotient of 
those having each interest 


Entire group answering these questions 


65.0 
75-0 
70.0 
60.0 
65.0 
65.0 


Those reading magazines and books 


Those reading newspapers 

Those doing little or no readire 


Those attending movies 

Those not attending movies 





The delinquency of these former students is another indication of the 
success or failure of the methods now used in dealing with them. It has 
not been possible to go over the entire police records since these children left 
school with a view to getting their records. The files of the Juvenile Court 
were searched, and such evidence of delinquency as came up in other social 
records were noted. On this incomplete basis and in spite of the fact that 
many of the former students have been lost track of, definite notations of 
delinquency were found for 67 out of the 203 children, or for thirty-three 
percent. In two cases delinquency developed before the child reached the 
Special School; in forty-five cases delinquency was in evidence during the 
child's attendance at the school, or just at the time of leaving; in twenty- 
seven instances delinquency developed after the child left school (some of 
those in this group having been delinquent during their schooling also) ; in 



TABLE IX 

Former students of Special Schools classified according to social and economic 
status at the time of the study and by sex. 


Status 


Males 


Females 


Both 

Number 


Sexes 
Percent 


Total number studied 

Gainfully occupied 


125 
60 

7 

5 

17 

14 



4 
18 


78 

23 

13 

7 

7 



16 



12 


203 

83 
20 
12 

24 

14 
16 

4 
30 


lOO.O 

40.9 
9-9 
5-9 

11.8 
6.9 
7-9 
2.0 

147 


Helping at home 

Home, not working; . . 


In institutions 


In the army or navy 

Married women 

Dead 


Lost track of 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 



247 



two cases the time of the delinquency CDuld not be determined. Sex 
offenses, stealing and truancy are the types of delinquency most frequently 
reported. A more detailed discussion of this topic will be found in connec- 
tion with the gainfully employed students. 

The status of the former students at the time the study was made is perhaps 
the best index of the outcome of the type of treatment which they receive. 
Table IX gives the results on this point. 

Of the boys, eliminating those dead and lost track of, 74 out of 103, or 
about seven-tenths were gainfully employed or in the army or navy. Of 
the girls, on a similar basis, 39 out of 66 were gainfully occupied or married 
or about six-tenths. 

The question naturally arises whether the schooling of the children 
affected the question of what became of them. Such data as bear on this 
point in our study are given in Table X. 



TABLE X 

Length of special schooling, intelligence and quality of hand work done by 
former students, classified according to social and economic status. 


Status 


Median number of school 

years spent in Special 

Schools 


Median 
LQ. 


Number w 
work was 
Good 


hose hand 

reported 

Poor 


All groups 

Gainfully occupied 

Army or Navy 


1-5 
1-5 
?.i 

2.5 

1-7 

•7 

I.I 

1-5 


63 
65 
62 

67 
55 
.45 
56 
65 


36 
20 

4 


2 

I 
2 

7 


48 

19 
2 

2 
5 
7 
8 

5 


Married women 

In institutions 


Home, not working 

Helping at home 

Lost track of or dead 



In studying this table it must be remembered that the least intelligent 
children were the ones who were kept the shortest time in the Special 
Schools. The gainfully occupied former students stayed approximately 
the same average length of time as the entire group; those married and those 
in the navy and those in institutions had more than average length of stay, 
while those remaining at home, who were in general the most hopeless 
mentally, had the shortest average stay. 

Although poor hand work was more common for the entire group than 
good, those who became gainfully occupied, and those in the army had 
more good hand workers than poor, while those in institutions and at home 
had four times as many poor hand workers as good. As far as one may 
judge from these data, the natural aptitude of the former students deter- 
mined their ability to succeed in life rather than the length of time they 
spent in the Special School. In view of the short average stay in the school, 
this constitutes, perhaps, the natural expectation. 



248 



Helen S. Troimstine Foundation 



It is also of interest to compare the social maladjustments of these 
various groups. Table XI gives information on this point. 



TABLE XI 


Status 


Clearings with so 
Percent from families 
with clearings 


cial agencies 
Number of clear- 
ings per family 


Percent 
delin- 
quent 


Percent with 
family mal- 
adjustments 


All groups 

Gainfully occupied. . . 
In Army or Navy .... 

Married women 

In institutions 

Home, not working . . 
Helping at home 


68 
70 

71 
81 
92 

58 

55 


30 

3-2 

4.0 
4.1 
30 
2.0 
1.6 


33 
34 
43 
50 
46 

17 
15 


63 
66 

71 

44 
75 
67 
45 



The significance of this table will be discussed in connection with the 
detailed comment on the respective groups. 

The children staying at home are least successful socially, though by no 
means the most dangerous. One-fifth of the girls are in the home groups, 
as compared with only one-tenth of the boys. The mentality of these 
groups is the lowest of any; one-third of these children have intelligence 
quotients below fifty and two-thirds below sixty. Their time in the Special 
School was the briefest; half of them had only one school year or less there. 
Their hand work in school was poorest of all ; only three of them are reported 
as doing good work as compared with fifteen reported as being poor in this 
training. On the other hand, the proportion of these children coming from 
families with clearings in the Confidential Exchange is lower than any of 
the other groups and the number of clearings per family is also lowest. The 
percentage of delinquency reported is less than half the proportion for the 
other children. The percentage with maladjustment or defect noted in 
the immediate family is a little lower than the general average. These 
children constitute the very feeble-minded members of families which are 
above the average of the group. They have had reasonably good home 
surroundings and parents who are ready to try any program which promises 
assistance. They are frequently well-behaved, though hopelessly stupid 
and incapable of mastering even the elements of school subjects. Frequently 
they appear more promising than they really are because they come from 
parents who have made the most of the children's exceedingly limited 
capacities. They are tried for a time in the Special School until the hope- 
lessness of the situation is apparent and are then kept at home again. 

Fairly typical of this group are the following cases: 

Case I is a girl who has a good home. Her father is a wire drawer. Two 
of her five sisters work at a skilled occupation. There are also two brothers. 
There has been one clearing from the truancy department. The girl is an 
idiot, according to her teachers. She has never worked, "can't do any- 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 249 

thing right," and is always under her mother's care. She was recommended 
to the Columbus Institution and was an inmate there for six weeks in 191 6. 
She now stays at home, plays with her dolls and sews, but cannot read. 
She is 18 years old. 

Case 2, a girl, is rather an exception to the group. She has a bad home. 
Her mother is a prostitute and is not married to her "step-father." One of 
her four sisters is irregular sexually and has had a forced marriage. This 
girl has an intelligence quotient of 63 and would be able to work, but her 
step-father is fond of her and keeps her at home. She has had an illegitimate 
child of which her step-father is the father. She was in the Special School 
for over a year and was good in hand work and good in behavior. The 
Salvation Army and the Attendance Department were interested in the 
family. 

Case 3, is a girl whose father is superintendent of a factory. She 
attended the Special School for only four months at the age of 18. This 
girl has an intelligence quotient of 56. She could read and write, but was 
very poor in household arts and could not learn to sew or to do much of 
anything else. She tried working in a shoe factory but stayed only two 
weeks. She didn't understand enough to do any kind of work. She helps 
her mother a little at home but has to be continually looked after. Her 
mother says that she does not read but goes to the gymnasium and loves 
automobile rides. 

Case 4 is a girl who has an intelligence quotient of 56. She was in the 
Special School for two years and did fairly well. Her hand training was 
good, her behavior was very good and she learned to read somewhat. Her 
father is an insurance agent. Her mother is paralyzed and the girl takes 
care of her. It is reported that she reads books and papers. 

Case 5 is a boy who comes from an excellent home. His sister is reported 
as being slow in school. His father is a baker and his mother helps in the 
store. He has an intelligence quotient of 35. He carries bread for his 
father. His teachers report that he was almost useless because of his very 
low mentality, and that he could not hold a job anywhere else than with his 
father. He does not read and never goes to the movies. He does go 
walking with his mother. 

Case 6 is a boy who works for his father who is a wholesale merchant. 
His older sister is a professional woman. He does no reading but goes to 
church and quite often to the movies. He helps his father in the store. 
His father buys his clothes and gives him spending money but does not 
pay him a salary. He goes to work when he feels like it and leaves when he 
feels like it, working only a few hours each day. He is friendly and harmless. 

The children kept in institutions, while better in mentality than those 
kept at home, are decidedly inferior to those gainfully occupied and those 
married. Their median intelligence quotient is 55 as compared with 63 



250 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

for the entire group of former students. They stayed in school sHghtly 
longer than the average but their work was generally inferior. Naturally 
a very large proportion of them come from families with Confidential 
Exchange clearings, though the average number of clearings per family 
known to the Exchange is less than in the army and navy or married women 
groups. The percentage delinquent is 46 as compared with 33 for the 
entire group, and the percentage with family defects and maladjustments is 
the highest of any of the groups — 75 as compared with 63 for the group as a 
whole. One striking fact is that while only 16 percent of all the former 
students known to social agencies are in institutions, 44 percent of those 
known to the United Jewish Charities have been institutionalized. This is 
of course because the United Jewish Charities has followed a consistent 
policy of placing in institutions all of its feeble-minded wards that can be 
induced to go. 

The institutions to which these former students have been sent are the 
following: Eight are at the Columbus Institution for Feeble-minded; six 
are at Longview; five are scattered among the Vineland, New Jersey Insti- 
tution; the Woodbine, New Jersey Agricultural School, the Jewish Foster 
Home and the Gallipolis Institution for the Epileptic; and the other five 
are in various institutions for the delinquent. 

The individuals who married provide probably the most striking illus- 
tration of the character of the material with which the Special Schools 
attempt to work, of the broad social significance of the problems involved, 
and of the unsatisfactory results achieved. Of the girls, 16 are known to 
have married and two others are known to have had illegitimate children, 
out of the 71 girls of working age not in institutions. The median age of 
the married girls at the time of the investigation was 18 years — approxi- 
mately the same as that of the rest of the girls. Of the boys, 4 are known 
to be married, and one is known to be the father of an illegitimate child. 
The outstanding characteristics of the various cases are as follows, beginning 
with the best: 

Case 7, a girl, is the mother of an apparently healthy baby. There were 
no clearings by social agencies. She spent three years in the Special School. 
Her intelligence quotient is not stated. 

Case 8, a girl, was married at the age of 20 and has a baby coming. 
There are no clearings. She spent one year in the Special School. Her 
intelligence quotient is 74. 

Case 9, a girl, was married at the age of 16 to a husband 19 years old 
and has a baby. On her parents' family there is a clearing from the Dental 
Clinic. Her intelligence quotient is 71. She spent four years in the Special 
School. 

Case 10, a girl, earned $6.00 a week at the factory, had an illegitimate child 
and at the age of 17, and married a man other than the child's father. Her 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 251 

parents' family had three clearings in the Confidential Exchange. Her 
intelligence quotient is 74 and she spent four years in the Special School. 

Case II, a girl, was married at the age of 16. She had a baby who 
died. At the age of 19 she has already been divorced and remarried. Her 
intelligence quotient is 64. The time in Special School is not given. 

Case 12 is a girl who has one child and has been divorced. Her intelli- 
gence quotient and time in Special School are not stated. 

Case 13, a girl, comes from a family with three clearings. Her father 
was a drunkard. She worked for $5.00 a week before her marriage. She 
now has a child. Her intelligence quotient is 65 and she spent one year in 
the Special School. 

Case 14 is a girl who, according to her school principal, was dishonest 
and untruthful. Her family, however, had no clearings, and she is reported 
as reading magazines and books as well as newspapers She worked for 
$6 to $7 a week previous to her marriage. Her intelligence quotient is 84 
and she spent four years in the Special School. 

Case 15, a girl, was twice committed to the House of the Good Shepherd 
and is partially crippled with muscular trouble. On her family there are 
clearings with the Juvenile Court and the Free Dental Clinic. Her intelli- 
gence quotient is 72 and the time spent in the Special School is not stated. 

Case 16 is a girl who is the mother of an illegitimate child She is noted 
as being very defective mentally and as having a squalid home. Her 
intelligence quotient is 64 and she spent two years in the Special School. 

Case 17 is a girl whose father was a drunkard, whose mother neglected 
her children and who was an habitual truant and had an illegitimate child 
at the age of sixteen. She is reported as always having a filthy head. Her 
intelligence quotient is 70 and the time spent in the Special School is not 
stated. 

Case 18 is a girl who had a drunken and neglectful father. She, her 
mother, and four of her brothers and sisters had cataracts. The family has 
eleven clearings in the Confidential Exchange. She married at the age of 
seventeen. Her intelligence quotient is not given but she spent four years 
in the Special School. 

Case 19 is a girl who had a drunken father. She worked for about 
$5.00 per week, had an illegitimate child and ran away from home. She is 
reported to be nervous and nearly blind. Her intelligence quotient is 73 
and she spent four years in Special School No. 3. 

Case 20, a girl, was married at the age of seventeen. Her father was a 
drunkard and her mother reported as tubercular. The girl was found in a 
filthy home, too feeble-minded to answer questions intelligently. Her 
occupation has been that of a rag picker. Her intelligence quotient is 62 
but the length of time she spent in the Special School is not recorded. 



252 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

Case 21, a girl, had a syphilitic mother and a deserting father. The 
family has had twelve clearings in the Confidential Exchange. Perhaps as 
a result of hereditary syphilis, she has eye trouble. Her marriage has 
already resulted in "several children." She spent two years in the Special 
School; her intelligence quotient is not stated. 

Case 22 is a girl who also had a syphilitic mother and a deserting father. 
Her parents' family had seven clearings with the Exchange. She herself is 
periodically insane. She has had an illegitimate child and was married at 
the age of twenty. Her intelligence quotient is 64 and she spent two years 
in the Special School. 

Case 23 is a girl who was married at the age of twenty. She has a good 
home. Her father runs a restaurant. Her intelligence quotient is only 52. 

Case 24 is a girl who has had an illegitimate child by her step-father. Her 
intelligence quotient is 63. She had one year in the Special School. Her 
mother and sister have been guilty of sex irregularities. 

Case 25, a girl, has an intelligence quotient of 48. Her father drinks 
neglects the family and is sexually irregular. Her mother who drank, died 
of tuberculosis in 191 1. She has a brother who is a deserter, another who is 
an imbecile and another who is syphilitic and feeble-minded. She married 
at the age of seventeen. She had a syphilitic baby which was found wrapped 
in newspaper and which later died. She was taken into Court but efforts 
to commit her to an institution failed. At the last report she had reunited 
with her husband after a separation. 

For the boys who have been married, the information is meagre: 
Case 26, a boy, has been lost track of, but is reported to be married. 
His intelligence quotient is 50. 

Case 27 is a boy who has a feeble-minded brother and sister. His own 
intelligence quotient is 67. He spent three years in the Special School. 
His earnings have been $22.75 during the war. He married in 1918 and 
has one child. 

Case 28, a boy, now has a wife who is pregnant with the second child. 
He is reported to have earned $13 to $19 a week. His mentality and stay 
in the Special School are not recorded 

Case 29, a boy, is dead. His mother is in the Home for Aged Poor and 
his brother is reported as being immoral and drunken. 

Case 30 is a boy who is the father of an illegitimate child. On his 
parents' family nine clearings are recorded. He has been in the House of 
Refuge. He is now in the Army and his military record includes desertion 
and sleeping on the post. His intelligence quotient is 77 and he spent one 
year in the Special School. 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 253 

Of all the twenty-three young people listed above, only four came from 
families who have no record in the social agencies of Cincinnati. Although 
all but four of them are still under twenty, they have produced at least 
sixteen children, of whom six are illegitimate. It must be remembered, of 
course, that these are the earliest and presumably the most disastrous of 
the marriages which will occur in this group of ex-students of Special Schools. 
They constitute, however, only a somewhat intensified sample of the group 
as a whole. Indeed, it is only fair to note that the married girls had a 
median intelligence a little higher than the group as a whole, and that they 
averaged a year longer in the Special Schools than the other students. They 
had the highest number of clearings in the Confidential Exchange of any 
group except those in institutions, and the highest delinquent percentage 
of any group. The number with family defects noted was the smallest of 
any group. 

(IMBECILES AND MORONS IN INDUSTRY) 

The scientific material available in print with regard to the industrial 
efficiency of morons is very limited. The Rome Custodial Asylum* 
established a home in New York City for a group of its moron girls from 
which they were sent to work by the day in factories. The experiment was 
successful in the sense that most of the girls could meet the requirements of 
the more routine types of factory work and only a small percentage of them 
(about 5 percent) became delinquent. 

During the war. Dr. George Ordahlf sent some of the higher grade 
defectives from the Sonoma State home to work in neighboring canneries. 
The experiment was of very brief duration — only five or six days' w^ork on 
the average. The morons of the stable type proved able to earn about 
75 percent as much on a piece rate basis as normal women who were also 
beginners. The morons of the unstable type did no better than the imbeciles. 

Both of these records have to do with the feeble-minded who have been 
institutionalized. Out in the community there is a large number of morons, 
no better off in mental level, who have not been institutionalized. They are 
presumably those of better social habits, who have given little or no trouble 
and whose families were able to care for them. In the group of working 
children studied by the Vocation Bureau of Cincinnati is a series of such 
boys, with mental ages of about ten years. As a class they have done well 
in industry. While the type of work performed has been unskilled, their 
earning capacity during the first four years in industry was about average 
for the entire group of working children. 

The children represented in this study are in social status between these 
two groups. They are not institutionalized but they have been selected 
as defective and segregated within the schools. 



*22nd Annual Report, Rome Custodial Society, State of New York. 

tOrdahl, George; Industrial Efficiency of the Moron', The Training School Bulletin, February, 1919. 



254 



Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation 



Interest in this study naturally centers on the children who are gainfully 
occupied. There were 83 of them, including 60 boys and 23 girls. In 
mentality they were somewhat better than the group as a whole. They 
were markedly superior to the other children in their hand work at school. 
In social maladjustments and delinquency they were about average. 

Information as to their industrial history was secured in a few cases 
from the Placement Office of the Vocation Bureau but chiefly from state- 
ments of the children themselves or of their parents. Even a normal 
person cannot always give an accurate history of his various past positions 
and earnings, especially if he has shifted frequently. This difficulty was, of 
course, considerably increased by the limited intelligence of the persons 
dealt with. In a considerable proportion of the cases the information was 
verified by visiting or telephoning past employers and the correctness of the 
statements made was unexpectedly high. Very little discrepancy in wages 
was noted between statements by employes and by employers. 



The earnings of former students gainfully occupied is a matter of special 
interest. In the summary of this pomt there have been added to those who 
were earning at the time of the study a few of the married women, soldiers 
and others for whom recent industrial histories were available. Of the 
whole group 69 were males and 27 were females. The relationship between 
mentality and earnings is indicated, as far as these data cast light upon the 
subject, in Table XII. 



TABLE XII 


Intelligence Quotients 


Number in Group 


Median Weekly Earnings 


Boys — 

o-so 


5 

7 • 
14 
8 

4 
28 

3 


$ 9-00 
9.00 

11-75 
11.00 
11.00 
13.70 


SO-60 


60-70 . 


70-80 


80-QO 


Intelligence quotient not known, . . 
Earnings not known 


All boys 


69 


I11.85 


Girls — 

0-50 


2 
4 
7 
I 
I 
II 
I 


$ 7.00 
8.00 

9.00 


50-60 

60-70 

70-80 

80-90 

Intelligence quotient not known. . . 
Earnings not known . . . 


All girls 


27 


$ 8.80 





In interpreting these figures, it should be noted that the boys range from 
16 to 24, the median age being 19.2 years, while the girls range from 17 to 26, 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 



255 



with a median age of 19.7 years. It is just at these ages that wages change 
rapidly from those of boys and girls to those of men and women. It also 
happens that the year 191 8 to which most of the wage rates ascertained in 
this study apply, was in the period of the war during which wages were 
increasing with unusual speed and the demand for workers was great. It is 
therefore difficult to judge accurately the significance of Table XII. It does 
appear, however, that the correlation between intelligence and earnings is 
strikingly less than might be expected and that the earnings of the feeble- 
minded young people are decidedly larger than might have been supposed. 
However, the average young man of nineteen years in the year igi8 was 
earning far more than $12.00 a week. 

The group of children designated as "intelligence quotients not known" 
are those admitted to the school without mental tests. Since out of any 
group of children recommended for tests, some prove too high-grade for a 
special school and are excluded on that ground, there is a strong presumption 
that the mental level of the children admitted without tests is higher than 
that of the children selected by tests. It is therefore suggestive that the 
boys and girls who were not tested have a higher earning capacity than 
those who were tested. 

The relationship between earnings and length of time in the special 
schools seems to be fairly pronounced. 



TABLE XIII 


Weekly Earnings 


Number in Group 


Median number of years 
in Special School 


Boys— 

-$ 9.99 


15 

22 

II 

2 

3 
II 


1.2 
1.4 
2.0 

I.O 


$10- 14.99 


IS- IQ.QQ 


20- 


Earnings not given 


Length of stay not given 

All boys. 


64 


1.6 




Girls— 

-$ 9.99 


II 
6 
2 


1-7 

•7 


$10- 14. qq 


Data not complete 

All girls 


19 


1.0 





It may be that the indication of this table is correct and that the girls 
who stayed in the special schools longest earned least after leaving while the 
boys who stayed longest earned most. The probability seems to be, how- 
ever, that the results are more or less accidental in view of the small number 
of items involved. 



256 Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation 

Among specific occupations mentioned once or twice each are, in clothing 
factories — shirt buttoner, pad-tester, shirt-maker, finisher and sewing 
machine operator; in machine shops — lathe hand, drill press operator, 
punch press operator, tool boy, assembler, polisher, helper and laborer; in 
other places — plumber's apprentice, rag picker, packer, bottle polisher, 
bottle cleaner, soda clerk, candy dipper, dancing teacher, stenographer, 
cigar roller, insoler, welter, painter, filing clerk, cutting flowers, washing 
carriages, peddler, running excavator, cleaning windows, elevator operator, 
usher. 

As to the length of time which positions were held, the small number of 
instances is also a serious handicap on conclusions. The median length of 
time in one position for 52 boys for whom such an estimate was possible was 
eleven months; for the 18 girls having sufficient histories for such an estimate 
the median was six months per job. Although no final deductions can be 
made, the figures seem to indicate that, in the group studied, the children 
with intelligence quotients under 70 tended to stay a little longer in the 
same position than those with intelligence quotients over 70. 

The conclusions are the reverse of the findings for a much larger group 
of normal children.* In that instance, the low grade children mentally and 
those who had not succeeded in school were much less steady workers than 
the superior children. They held their jobs a shorter time and had longer 
periods of unemployment. The sex difference was also the reverse of the 
one suggested in this summary. Girls proved to be steadier than boys. 



TABLE XIV 
Positions held by gainfully occupied former students of Special Schools. 



Factory and shop operatives 156 

Machine shop employments 29 

"Machinists" 8 

Other occupations 21 

Other metal trades 7 

Clothing factories 18 

Wooden and paper box factories 15 

Shoe factories 11 

Miscellaneous 47 

Messengers, wagon boys and errand bo^'s 23 

Wrappers 7 

Drivers 5 

Motor Truck Drivers 2 

Salespersons 7 

Farm hands 3 

Miscellaneous 38 

House-work (not at home) 4 

Selling papers 6 



All positions noted 251 



*A special study, not yet published, made by the Vocation Bureau. 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 257 

Seven of the girls who are known to have been working at piece rates 
averaged $10.10 a week in earnings. These girls were typical of the group 
in mentality. 

In occupation, 60 percent of the girls and 69 percent of the boys were 
factory operatives, over a third of the latter being employed in machine 
shops. Work in factories, especially in machine shops, was much more 
common among the boys with intelligence quotients above 70 than among 
those having lower mentalities. 

A few typical cases may serve to illuminate the above figures: 

Case 31 is a girl 18 years old, with an intelligence quotient of 65, who 
has been employed as a nurse maid at five to six dollars a week and board. 
She stayed five months at one place but her employer reported that she 
was not at all reliable. 

Case 32, a girl, is 21 years old and has an intelligence quotient of 57. 
She has worked at various clothing factories since she left school, averaging 
about six months at a place. Her rate of pay is supposed to be $9.00 a week 
but she averages only three to five dollars because of sickness and lay-offs. 

Case 33 is a girl, 18 years old, who has an intelligence quotient of 54. 
She reports having held eight different positions in two years, holding her 
places about two months each. She earned three to four and a half dollars 
a week wrapping and clerking in stores. 

Case 34 is a girl, 19 years of age, with an intelligence quotient of 47 who 
sews in an uncle's restaurant with "irregular" earnings. Her teacher at 
the special school said that she is an idiot, useless industrially. 

Case 35 is a boy who, at the age of 21 passes circulars and does odd jobs. 
His intelligence quotient is 40. 

Case 36, a boy, has worked for four years at a machine tool works. He 
is twenty, has an intelligence quotient of 65 and earns $11.00 a week. 

Case 37, a boy, formerly earned $15.60 a week at a candle factory. 
Although he is only fifteen he has been put on the night shift and earns 
$20.00 a week. His employer speaks well of him. His intelligence quotient 
is 65. 

Case 38, a boy, is aged 21, with an intelligence quotient of 70. He 
worked in a machine shop eighteen months at $6.00, in a lamp factory two 
months at $6.00, and in a tannery two months at $12.00 per week. He was 
in the army seven months, but has returned to the tannery at $15.00 a week. 

Case 39 is a boy who worked two years at a desk factory at $15.00 a week. 
He left there to get a better position and since 1915 has been with a machine 
company. During the war he made $22.75 a week. His intelligence 
quotient is 67. He is married and has a baby. 



258 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

The delinquency of gainfully occupied former students of special schools is 
worthy of special study. Of the 96 ex-students for whom some sort of 
industrial history was secured, no delinquency records whatever were 
found in 40 cases; delinquency records of other members of the family were 
located in 25 cases, and delinquency records of the individuals themselves 
in 31 cases. These figures are based on a systematic study of only the 
Juvenile Court, school, and social agencies records; municipal court and 
other records were considered only when the facts happened to come to hand 
during the study. 

In the 65 cases with negative personal records, statements as to the 
honesty of the employe were secured from employers in eleven instances. 
Nine stated that the employe was honest, one said that he had no basis for 
judging, and the other said that the employe was not honest, but gave no 
specifications. 

The school records of behavior, as given verbally by the principal of 
Special School No. 3 are significant. Out of the forty children with no 
record of delinquency, eighteen were remembered as having been good, and 
six questionable, while no records were available of the other sixteen. Be- 
sides the terms "good" and "very good," the following expressions Vere 
used for the first group of children: "Liked school very much;" "well- 
behaved and reliable;" "very nice;" "excellent;" "very satisfactory, very 
regular." For the doubtful group, the following remarks were used: 
"Likes men; needs watching;" "not bad;" "fair;" "poor;" "loveable, lazy;" 
"erratic." 

Among the 25 children not known to have deUnquency records, but with 
delinquent members of the family, 9 are remembered as having been good, 
6 as questionable, and 10 not given. One is said to have conquered a violent 
temper. The questionable ones were: "Indifferent, doesn't like to study;" 
"fair;" "negative;" "stubborn;" "irregular;" "fair." 

Certain children who were recorded as dangerously rough or as having 
thrown scissors at another child, or as untruthful, were included among the 
minor delinquents; one reported as having stolen in school was included 
among the more serious offenders. 

In 25 cases definite delinquency was noted for other members of the 
family but not for the ex-student himself. The father was reported as being 
drunken, or deserting or failing to support his family in 14 cases. Three of 
the mothers were noted as abusive or drunken. Ten brothers and sisters of 
the children in the group were recorded as delinquent or truant. In one 
case an ex-student divorced her husband for cruelty. 

The cases where the individual himself was delinquent are, of course, 
the center of interest. In ten of these cases the father also was drunken or 
neglectful of his duty, in two cases the mother was delinquent and in five, 
brothers or sisters were noted as delinquent. Of the ex-students themselves, 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 259 

nine have records which indicate scarcely more than mischief. For instance, 
one boy, a high-grade imbecile, recently employed at $12.00 a week in a 
machine shop, was taken into Juvenile Court while still in school for being 
one of a group of boys who had damaged an empty building. 

The following cases illustrate the minor delinquencies: 

Case 40 is a girl, a borderline case mentally, who has averaged about one 
month per position in the numerous places where she has worked since 
leaving school and who has earned about $5.00 per week. She was in 
Juvenile Court for truancy in 1910. Case 41 is a boy who for two months 
earned $20.00 per week in a machine shop, but who has since taken a job in 
a pool room at $7.00 a week. He was taken into Juvenile Court as a school 
boy for having run away to another city. Case 42, a boy with an intelligence 
quotient of 53, who has a drunken abusive father and a feeble-minded 
epileptic mother, has been earning over $17.00 a week in a machine shop. 
He was taken into court as a truant in 1914. 

The other 18 cases which are more serious are illustrated in the following 
instances: 

Case 43 is a boy who is earning $14.00 a week on a dining car, who was 
at one time in Juvenile Court for selling papers without a license, and for 
bad conduct, and who was recently arrested for boot legging; Case 44 is a 
young man with an intelligence quotient of 64 who some years ago was up 
in Juvenile Court for stealing an automobile. This boy served as a home 
guard during the war. Of a more serious nature is case 45, that of a feeble- 
minded rag picker who deserted her baby. Case 46 is a girl with an intelli- 
gence quotient of 73 who has been earning $7.00 to $9.00 a week at piece 
work in a factory. She has an illegitimate child and when her father objec- 
ted to her late hours, she ran away to "somewhere around Liberty Street." 
Case 47 is a colored imbecile who was sent to Lancaster for attacking a 
white girl. Recently he has been employed scraping pans in a bakery at 
$9.00 per week, but was discharged because his work was unsatisfactory. 

Case 48, a boy, with an intelligence quotient of 71 and a record at 
Lancaster for stealing candy, has been working since his release on a punch 
press for $9.25 a week and is still there after eight months. Case 49 is 
another boy who has been to Lancaster for stealing. He has an intelligence 
quotient of 81. He has earned over $20.00 per week driving a truck, and 
has recently joined the Marines. 

Case 50 is a boy who has an intelligence quotient of only 44. He has 
served a term in Lancaster. His last employment was in a cigar bo.x 
factory, where he earned $11.00 per week. He was recently sent to the 
workhouse for annoying girls. Case 51 is a girl who has been diagnosed as 
having dementia praecox and whose intelligence quotient is 51. She has 
been employed in a tailor shop at $6.00 a week. She has served two terms 



26o Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

at the Convent of the Good Shepherd and was sent recently to the Girls 
Industrial School at Delaware. Case 52, a boy with an intelligence quotient 
of 77, has earned $14.00 a week with a packing company. In school he was 
remembered as bad and high tempered. He was adjudged delinquent in 
the Juvenile Court and was committed to the House of Refuge, leaving 
behind an illegitimate child. He is reported to have served ten days in the 
guard house for sleeping on duty and five months for desertion. 

Case 53, a boy, is now earning |i2.oo a week in a machine shop. He 
was discharged for dishonesty at his previous place of employment. Case 
54, a boy, was an habitual truant. He averages one month per position, 
and has been found stealing by two of his employers. Case 55 is a boy who 
was sent to the House of Refuge for stealing, has completed his term and 
has been placed with a farmer at $10.00 a month and board. 

These are types rather than a complete list. Of the eighteen individuals 
known to have committed serious offenses, nine are reported to have stolen, 
and four to have committed serious sex offenses. Eight have been in the 
reformatory. Two are known to have had cases in Municipal Court, but 
if a systematic search could be made in those records this number would 
unquestionably be greatly increased. From the data available, it is clear 
that over one-third of the employed ex-students have definite records of 
delinquency, while at least one-fifth have committed more or less serious 
offenses. The amount of delinquency among those gainfully occupied is 
not, however, markedly greater than among the other former students of 
special schools. 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 

Imperfect as the data of this study are, they suggest certain conclusions 
and some elements of a working program. 

A . Selection of pupils for the special school and type of traini?ig. 

The importance of selecting children for special classes as early as 
possible in their school careers has been vividly demonstrated in this 
study. The only hope for them is to train them up to good habits and 
normal social reactions by beginning as early as possible. If the special 
school does not get them until adolescence as was the case with most of the 
present group, its possibilities of accomplishment are very much limited. 
Feeble-minded children are peculiarly creatures of habit. If good habits 
can be ingrained in early childhood, they may become law-abiding citizens. 
If bad habits are ingrained, it is almost impossible to change them. The 
hopeful feature of the situation is that it is almost as hard to change the 
good as the bad habits in adult years. 

Dr. Walter Fernald tells a story of a boy entered in his institution at the 
age of ten who was forty years old at the time of the war. Because of the 
labor shortage, an employer in his district appealed to him for an inmate 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 261 

who would be capable of serving as a teamster and this man was sent. After 
two months of employment, the employer called Dr. Fernald and reported 
that the man was the best teamster he had ever had. "Indeed," he said, 
"he has but one fault. He will go to bed at half past seven, no matter what 
happens." 

However, not all defective children are suflficiently educable to form 
reliable or usable habits of any sort. If they are a totally unpromising risk 
from the point of view of education, they should be excluded from school. 

Only children who are to some degree educable should be given the 
advantage of the small classes, superior teachers, and expensive equipment 
of the special school. Many of the children in this first group were too low 
grade mentally to profit by academic instruction. They are children who 
are sure to be throughout life dependent upon others for support and for 
personal protection. If they belong, as many of them do, in families which 
are unable to give proper care and protection, they should be placed in 
institutions where they can be given what little training in simple occupa- 
tions they are able to take, and where they can be protected and kept happy 
for the rest of their lives. What they need is not skilled teachers but kindly 
sympathetic care-takers and supervisors. Either these institutions should 
be placed under the educational authorities, or educational authorities 
should be given the right to take the initiative in arranging for the transfer 
of such children directly to State institutions. 

Since this ideal is not likely to be achieved in the near future, some plan 
with regard to these very inferior children must be arranged meanwhile. 
On the basis of this study and of several years' experience with other feeble- 
minded children, we make the following suggestion. Children under twelve 
years with intelligence quotients of less than fifty, provided supplementary 
estimates agree with the intelligence quotient, should be excluded from day 
school entirely. Their families should be assisted to place them in institu- 
tions if they so desire. They are hopeless from the point of view of education. 
Children under twelve with intelligence quotients between 50 and 60 
(provided again that the supplementary findings confirm this estimate), 
should be accepted in school, but organized in classes of about 25 and should 
not be given the superior teachers. Very simple occupational training, 
training in cleanliness and personal behavior, recreation and team work 
should constitute the main part of their curriculum. They should be given 
some instruction in reading, writing and simple arithmetic. Most of them 
will never acquire a usable knowledge of even simple English and arithmetic, 
but a few may by the time they are grown. Short periods each day are as 
much time as these children can profitably spend in academic work. They 
tire easily. Keeping them employed continuously with attempts to learn 
academic subjects is likely to result in fatigue and a distaste for this type 
of instruction which will mean slower progress. Parents of feeble-minded 
children are apt to make the mistake of thinking that if their children were 



262 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

compelled to spend all their school time on academic subjects, they would be 
able to learn. It is hard to make them understand that in this case, less 
time means better progress. Some of these children, provided they are 
trained to good habits of behavior, will be able to make a living when they 
leave school at very low grade occupations. 

Children of the next higher grade — those with intelligence quotients 
from 60 to 75, including the so-called high-grade morons and borderline 
cases, are fairly hopeful from the point of view of occupation. These 
children will probably by the time they are grown be able to master academic 
work represented by standards varying from the third to the sixth grade, 
and be able to make their way in low skilled industries provided they have 
been trained to good habits of behavior. For them the smaller class ( 1 5 to 20) , 
the skilled teachers and special equipment are worth while since there 
is a chance of giving them a usable know^Iedge of simple English and arith- 
metic, and manual skill enough to earn a living. 

They should be given elementary training in as many simple occupations 
as possible. The girls should learn sewing, both by hand and by machine, 
cooking, laundry work and methods of house-cleaning. The more promising 
ones can be trained in simple power machine work. Their chances of earn- 
ing a living are limited to domestic work, very simple sewing, or routine 
factory work. 

The prospects of the boys for earning a living are day labor, the more 
routine types of factory work, including the tending of simple machines, 
and assistance at various kinds of farm work. Their training should com- 
prise, in addition to what academic learning they can acquire, simple shop 
work in wood and metal, tailoring, and gardening and farm work if possible. 

Children ought to be assigned to the special school as early as a definite 
decision can be reached with regard to their mental handicap. In some 
cases they can be selected from kindergarten or first grade'. All of these 
children should be assigned by the time they are ten or at the very most, 
twelve years old. They will then have at least three years and in most 
instances five or more years in the special school before they reach the legal 
age for leaving school. 

B. Record keeping in the Special School. 

Up to the present time, no records worthy of the name have been kept 
in the special school. This study has shown the need for having records as 
complete as possible, kept by the school. The necessity for more careful 
records both for normal and for defective children is daily becoming more 
evident. They furnish the kind of information about children which is 
essential for the school to have, first in giving educational advice, second, in 
giving vocational advice, and third, in discovering what correlations exist 
between school success and failure, and occupational success and failure. 
Since the entire question of the education of defectives and very inferior 



Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 263 

children is still in the experimental stage, the importance of preserving an 
adequate school record, with which subsequent occupational successes and 
failures can be compared, is doubly important. The school should have a 
record of the date of entrance, the chronological and mental ages at entrance, 
the degree of school proficiency at entrance and of progress from year to 
year in each academic and vocational subject. Educational tests in reading, 
spelling, arithmetic and writing, applied to the whole school once a year 
would assist in making the data accurate. These children are frequently 
very uneven in development. The kind of record needed is that of the 
school grade requirement in each academic subject, which can be met by 
each child. A child may be doing third grade reading, but only first grade 
arithmetic or vice versa. Since progress is so slow with these children, an 
accurate rating by teachers' judgments and tests once a year would be 
sufficient. 

A system of transferring records from school to school, such that a child 
once assigned to the special school would not be allowed to wander back into 
the regular classes when he moves to another part of the city, should be 
installed. This study revealed many instances of children who had been 
in the special school, and who when they moved to another part of the city, 
were entered in a regular class, there to repeat the process of being found to 
be defective, and once more recommended to a special class. The new 
cumulative record system which has now been installed for all Cincinnati 
Schools, will doubtless help to correct this defect. Some principals and 
teachers are evidently still not aware that children once diagnosed as 
defective and assigned to special classes, can be compelled to attend such 
classes. Decisions of the Judge of the Juvenile Court have established the 
legal right of the school authorities to compel these transfers. When all of 
the teachers and principals understand this, children will not so easily escape 
from special classes by moving. 

C. Social case work for special school students. 

This study has shown that the majority of the children in the special 
school belong in families which are problems to the social agencies. What 
we know of the feeble-minded leads us to believe that the reason so many 
of them are delinquent is because they live in surroundings which tend to 
induce delinquency. They learn bad habits because they are in a bad 
environment, not because they independently devise evil. As a class they 
are too stupid and lacking in initiati\'e to devise anything, good or bad. 
Lack of control of instincts, and bad influences are responsible for their evil 
deeds, rather than any inherent tendency to evil. Brought up to good 
habits they might be useful laborers, and do no harm to society, except in 
so far as a very low level of intelligence on the part of its members is always 
a disadvantage and a handicap to rapid social advance. 

From this point of view it becomes doubly important to get in contact 
with the feeble-minded early, and to treat each one as a case work problem. 



264 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 

The school should cooperate closely with the available social agencies in 
studying each family with a view to determining whether the family 
conditions can be made such as to offer a hopeful prospect for the develop- 
ment of good social habits in the child. If the family conditions are 
hopeless from this point of view, the child should be removed from the 
family and provided for either in a good institution or in a family home if 
one can be found willing to assume the responsibility for a deficient child. 
The children who are left with their own families should be under constant 
social supervision from a responsible social worker, cooperating with the 
school. 

When the child finally leaves school, he should be even more carefully 
supervised while he gets his start at wage earning. His employer should be 
informed what his limitations are, and the work should be carefully selected 
with a view to possible success. It is possible that voluntary after-care 
Committees, like those of the English system, could be organized for this 
purpose. Friendly supervision of the child and consultation with the 
employer may do much to contribute to success. 

A feeble-minded child of any degree of deficiency who becomes seriously 
delinquent ought to be segregated. It is much more difficult to break up 
bad habits, than it is to form good ones in the first place. The prospect of 
reforming a delinquent feeble-minded child is too hopeless to be undertaken 
as a general policy, outside of institutions. 



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